(Above) Soprano Jekalyn Carr performs with the Good News Mass Gospel Chorus. (Below) The Crossing performs David Lang’s “poor hymnal,” conducted by Donald Nally.

Two musical works drawn from different American faith traditions were featured in concert at Symphony Hall on Jan. 29 and 31 as the Boston Symphony Orchestra concluded its monthlong “E Pluribus Unum: From Many One” festival, which celebrated the music of the multiple cultural traditions that enrich America.

As the United States marks the 250th anniversary of the start of the Revolutionary War this year, its founding values as a democracy are being challenged. The BSO festival engages the arts to inspire renewed commitment to these values — enshrined in the Constitution in 1789 and a work-in-progress from the start.

The BSO presented the East Coast premiere of “Good News Mass,” composed by Carlos Simon, the orchestra’s first-ever composer chair; preceded by a performance of David Lang’s 2023 composition “poor hymnal” by the Crossing, a vocal ensemble dedicated to singing contemporary music that looks at the world and the place of humanity in it.

Lang writes that the work was inspired by his collection of old New England hymnals in which he found “a catalog of things a community of worshippers can agree on…hymns of a community that did not want to forget our responsibilities to each other.”

Sung a cappella by the 24-member Crossing choir, the words in Lang’s songs are plain and few and draw listeners into contemplating how they respond to others in need. An overhead screen shows the lines as supertitles. Titles of the 10 selections are their first lines, such as “I saw a poor man,” “open your hands (after Deuteronomy 15)” and “take nothing with you (after Luke 9:3).”

Rising in power with repetition, the same spare words return as the verses turn into small stories of encounters between an observer and another person in need. At first an onlooker, the person then asks, “Are my hands open, or are they closed? Is my heart open or closed?” Rendering these interior dialogues with supple, unadorned vocals, the Crossing singers alternate between solos, ensemble passages and at times intertwine the two. Each selection stirs reflection and perhaps, change.

In contrast to the quiet reflection of “poor hymnal,” after the intermission, “Good News Mass” opens with a surging wave of vocal and instrumental power and unfolds as an immersive multisensory experience that is no less effective in kindling uplift and raising hearts and spirits.

Following the introductory passage, Simon stepped out to greet the capacity audience and noted that behind the orchestra he would be performing on a Hammond B-3 organ, an instrument he has played since age 10 in the church of his father, a Pentecostal bishop in Atlanta.

Simon wrote “Good News Mass” as a co-commission of the BSO, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Sphinx Symphony Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Led by its artistic director, Gustav Dudamel, the world premiere was performed in April 2025 at Walt Disney Concert Hall.

As audience members entered Symphony Hall, ushers handed them white pamphlets like those of a church service. Inside were the 16 movements, each with its own text, evoking or directly quoting familiar texts of a Catholic Mass, including the Lord’s Prayer, prayers of confession and prayers asking forgiveness and mercy, giving thanks and praise and concluding with a testament to God’s abiding love.

Filling the stage, the performers of “Good News Mass” were the orchestra, led by BSO conductor Thomas Wilkins; the 50-member Good News Mass Gospel Chorus, drawn from choirs in Greater Boston and beyond and directed by Dennis Slaughter; soprano Jekalyn Carr, alto Melvin Crispell III and tenor Zebulon Ellis; and Marc Bamuthi Joseph, librettist and spoken word artist.

After a lyrical arpeggio from Simon’s B-3, the full production moved into motion, starting with the Lord’s Prayer and proceeding in each movement with poems and songs about pain and struggle and human suffering as well as praise, thanksgiving, faith, saving grace and divine love.

As a celebrant ministering a Mass and a preacher giving his sermon, Joseph delivered prayerful, psalm-like exhortations and homilies he had written to Simon’s score with his every limb as well as with his voice. After Joseph spoke to open each movement, the soloists or the entire choir sang a song related to the passage.

Meanwhile, a mesmerizing black and white video by Melina Matsoukas to Simon’s music conjured a vision in which the holy and daily life meet along a poor, palm-tree lined street. Two young boys with cotton wings dash by flaming cars, prostitutes, kids at play and drug dealers; and a resolute young man carrying a crucifix passes by stores and a housing project. In the concluding scene, a contemporary Black Madonna holding infant Jesus stands in a riverbed, blessing all.

An overjoyed audience gave standing ovations following each of the evening’s two works, which through two deeply American musical traditions demonstrated the power of music to bring a community together and lift hearts and minds.

As Simon told the audience, “Growing up in church has shaped my life. My parents, grandparents and great-grandparents were all ministers. I wanted to join that lineage and use music to make an impact. That’s why the piece is called ‘Good News Mass.’ I want to spread some good news.”

ON THE WEB

Learn more about Carlos Simon at carlossimonmusic.com

Learn more about The Crossing choir at crossingchoir.com